The Fifth Food Mega-shock in 20 Years? How to Stop these Crises for Good

This article argues that the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz is driving a fifth global food mega-shock in less than two decades by simultaneously disrupting energy supplies, fertilizer markets, food production, and humanitarian assistance. The author explains how these interconnected pressures are unfolding in cascading phases, producing rising food prices and increasing hunger over the coming year while exposing longstanding structural vulnerabilities in global food systems. The article calls for governments, particularly the G7 and G20, to strengthen food system resilience by maintaining open trade, diversifying supply chains, restoring humanitarian financing, integrating food, energy, climate, and financial risk governance, and shifting from reactive crisis management to prevention and long-term resilience. It concludes that the deeper danger is not any single crisis but the normalization of recurrent shocks in a world increasingly organized around permanent instability.